


Cooking

by Starofwinter



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Cooking, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:17:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22140133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starofwinter/pseuds/Starofwinter
Summary: There's something calming about cooking, and Steady takes the opportunities he gets to relax.
Relationships: Steady/Sten
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Cooking

**Author's Note:**

  * For [batdad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/batdad/gifts).



> This is part of an art/fic trade with [Batdad!](https://batdad.tumblr.com/) Steady belongs to them, and Sten and the Speck belong to [Divine-valley!](http://divine-valley.tumblr.com/)

There’s something calming about cooking. Steady doesn’t  _ enjoy  _ it, not like some people do, but it’s strangely relaxing. There are specific steps that lead to specific outcomes, and everything is controllable. He doesn’t get that often. 

He needs it more when things go wrong - he can go weeks without feeling the urge to cook, but then everything goes to hell at once and he needs the routine of it to ground himself again. If it’s a minor kind of stress, he’ll experiment with something new - he’s found some of his favorite foods that way, and he’s never sure if it’s because they worked to distract him best, or if they really are that good. If it’s something serious though, he’ll do something familiar that he has to think about, something that takes a long time to get right. He has a whole list of simple, filling foods, things that are just  _ better _ to eat after a long day than rations or whatever premade slop the Kaminoans decided gave the best nutrition with the least expense and effort, and didn’t taste any better than the packaging it came in.

Eventually, he starts cooking at the Speck, and it brings the others together too. Drawn together by the smells of cooking food, they gather around the kitchen - he mutters about them getting underfoot and stealing samples of what he’s making, but he doesn’t really mean it - and when they’re all chatting to each other, it almost feels like home. The Speck isn’t anything like the futures he’s daydreamed of, the way all of them do, but it  _ feels _ like it could be, with this mismatched, cobbled-together group of vode. 

It makes his chest ache, as much as it makes him smile, when he thinks about it. They’ve lost so much, but they’ve gained something too. It feels good to know that they have this, they have each other, that  _ he _ has  _ them _ . It’s far from perfect; there’s any of a dozen things going sideways all the time, and there’s always the fear buried deep down that the GAR will decide to split them all up or worse, but the peace always clouds all of that. It’s funny to think that they could have peace  _ here _ , but they do. It makes his chest go warm and soft, especially when Sten goes out of his way to make sure Steady knows he likes his cooking. It feels so  _ domestic _ and he has to smile; maybe they can get more of this one day, when the war ends and all of this is over with. He tries not to feel too hopeful about that - he knows how crushing disappointment can be and how ephemeral good things can be for them - but it still sneaks up on him sometimes, making him smile as he stirs the stew on the cooktop or while he rolls out dough. 

Cooking has changed for him; before, it was just a way to have a decent warm meal, but now, it reminds him of everything he’s gained in such a short time.


End file.
